Boyz N the Hood; Shifting Hollywood Terrain

470 Pages·2018·6.764 MB·English

by  Joi Carr

20
F R A M I N G F I L M
20
THE HISTORY & ART OF CINEMA
In 1991, Boyz N the Hood made history as an important film text and the impetus for a critical
national conversation about American urban life in African American communities, especially
BOYZ N THE HOOD
for young urban black males. Boyz N the Hood: Shifting Hollywood Terrain is an interdisciplinary B
examination of this iconic film and its impact in cinematic history and American culture. This O
interdisciplinary approach provides an in-depth critical perspective of Boyz N the Hood as the Y
Z
embodiment of the blues: how Boyz intimates a world beyond the symbolic world Singleton Shifting Hollywood Terrain

posits, how its fictive stance pivots to a constituent truth in the real world. Boyz speaks from
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the first person perspective on the state of being “invisible.” Through a subjective narrative

point of view, Singleton interrogates the veracity of this claim regarding invisibility and provides T
deep insight into this social reality. This book is as much about the filmmaker as it is about the H
film. It explores John Singleton’s cinematic voice and helps explicate his propensity for a type E
of folk element in his work (the oral tradition and lore). In addition, this text features critical
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perspectives from the filmmaker himself and other central figures attached to the production,
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including a first-hand account of production behind the scenes by Steve Nicolaides, Boyz’s
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producer. The text includes Singleton’s original screenplay and a range of critical articles and
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initial movie reviews.

“At long last comes a book we have all been waiting for: Joi Carr’s masterful examination of

John Singleton’s classic Boyz N the Hood…This book is an accomplished, enlightening piece
of work, a great companion to Singleton’s film. Highly recommended!” C
A
—Donald Bogle. Film Historian/Author; University of Pennsylvania; R
New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts R
“This wise and pioneering book is the first serious and substantive treatment of John Singleton’s
classic film! This film and book speak with great courage and insight into the plight and
predicament of young black men. Don’t miss this book!!”
—Cornel West, Professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy,
Harvard University; Professor Emeritus, Princeton University
Joi Carr is a Professor of English and Film
Studies at Pepperdine University, Seaver PE
T
College, currently serving as the Director of E
R

Film Studies and Creative/Program Director L
A
of the Multicultural Theatre Project (an N
G J O I C A R R
interdisciplinary art-based critical pedagogy).
She received her PhD from Claremont
Graduate University. www.peterlang.com
ADVANCE PRAISE FOR
BOYZ N THE HOOD
Shifting Hollywood Terrain

“At long last comes a book we have all been waiting for: Joi Carr’s masterful examination of John
Singleton’s classic Boyz N the Hood. Throughout, her wide-ranging scholarship is impressive, and
her analysis is illuminating. She elucidates the perhaps surprising historical/creative links between
Singleton’s work, Ellison’s Invisible Man, and Van Peebles’ Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song. Also
included in this valuable book are the screenplay of the film plus insightful critical essays as well as
a series of interviews conducted by Carr. Her interview with Singleton reveals the autobiographical
themes that went into his directorial debut as well as directors he was influenced by. Her interview
with Boyz producer Steve Nicolaides says much about the state of the movie industry at the time
the film went into production. Then there is her interview with actress Tyra Ferrell, who played
Mrs. Baker, the mother of Dough Boy and Ricky, in the film. The Ferrell interview builds to
indicate to us the position of African American women in Hollywood in the 1990s and of course,
today. There is also a seemingly brief moment in the interview when Ferrell recounts an incident
on set when she was not fully into her character—and how Singleton handled the situation, which
succinctly reveals to us his direct, perhaps blunt, creative skills as a director as well as Ferrell’s
creative awareness as an actress. Ferrell also has telling comments about her experience when
working on White Men Can’t Jump. Dr. Carr also brings to her work an awareness of cultural life
in Los Angeles and the dangers that exist for African American males who must walk a tightrope to
survive.
Most significant, in so much of this book, we see a young director (not long out of film school)
coming into his own and adroitly helming a major production that was cheered when shown at the
Cannes Film Festival and that has affected moviegoers (black and also white) in a way that few other
films in history have ever done.
This book is an accomplished, enlightening piece of work, a great companion to Singleton’s
film. Highly recommended!”
—Donald Bogle
Film Historian/Author
Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies, and Bucks: An Interpretive History
of Blacks in American Films, 5th Edition, and Dorothy Dandridge: A Biography
University of Pennsylvania
New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts

“This wise and pioneering book is the first serious and substantive treatment of John Singleton’s
classic film! This film and book speak with great courage and insight into the plight and
predicament of young black men. Don’t miss this book!!”
—Cornel West
Professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy,
Harvard University;
Professor Emeritus, Princeton University

BOYZ N THE HOOD
FRAMING FILM

The History & Art of Cinema

Frank Beaver, General Editor

Vol. 20

The Framing Film series is part of the Peter Lang Humanities list.
Every volume is peer reviewed and meets
the highest quality standards for content and production.

PETER LANG
New York  Bern  Berlin
Brussels  Vienna  Oxford  Warsaw
Joi Carr

BOYZ N THE HOOD
Shifting Hollywood Terrain

PETER LANG
New York  Bern  Berlin
Brussels  Vienna  Oxford  Warsaw
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Carr, Joi author. | Singleton, John, Boyz n the hood.
Title: Boyz n the hood: shifting Hollywood terrain / Joi Carr.
Description: New York: Peter Lang, 2018.
Series: Framing film; Vol. 20 | ISSN 2151-7010
Includes John Singleton’s screenplay of the film.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017026105 | ISBN 978-1-4331-4637-4 (hardback: alk. paper)
ISBN 978-1-4331-4638-1 (ebook pdf) | ISBN 978-1-4331-4639-8 (epub)
ISBN 978-1-4331-4640-4 (mobi)
Subjects: LCSH: Boyz n the hood (Motion picture)
Singleton, John—Criticism and interpretation.
Classification: LCC PN1997.B7188 C38 | DDC 791.43/72—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017026105
DOI 10.3726/b11480

Bibliographic information published by Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek.
Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the “Deutsche
Nationalbibliografie”; detailed bibliographic data are available
on the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de/.

Front cover image: Copyright © Columbia Pictures
Back cover image: Courtesy of John Singleton

© 2018 Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., New York
29 Broadway, 18th floor, New York, NY 10006
www.peterlang.com

All rights reserved.
Reprint or reproduction, even partially, in all forms such as microfilm,
xerography, microfiche, microcard, and offset strictly prohibited.
To John Singleton, thank you! I see you!
To Sheila Morgan-Ward
For the first beautiful man in my life,
Sammie Lee
(1933–2010)
To Raymond, my love.
To Andre, Sam “Junior”, Denovious, Sadarious, Shidique,
Milow, Melvin, Shawn, Charleston, Ryan, and
Stanley Ty, “Keep your head to the sky.”
To Cooke and Brown, gifts that keep on giving.
To Laru, the definition of cool!

Contents
List of Credits ix
Acknowledgments xiii
Preface xv
Introduction Shifting Hollywood Terrain: The Iconic
Status of Boyz N the Hood xix
PART I
Prologue “ I Am an Invisible Man”: Boyz and the Literary and
Cinematic Imagination 3
B oyz Getting Behind Language: Invisibility and the
Literary and Cinematic Imagination 8
E llison’s Invisible Man (1952): Mediating Self-Knowledge
Through Messianic Language 12
V an Peebles’s Sweetback (1971): Invisible Man’s
Cinematic Appearance 21
B oyz in Context: The Streets of the Southland
and Invisibility 30